Hunting Season
by AlphaTheGriffin17
Summary: Knuckles and Shade guarding the Master Emerald. Seems normal. But what happens when the galaxy's deadliest hunter comes to claim them as his next trophies? Little bit of Knuckade sneaked in for extra flavor. Delicious! R&R. LINKED!
1. Chapter 1

A note before you read this. Oo forgottenroses oo is in a state of depression. If anyone is reading this, read her stories, review them and PLEASE help. We don't want to lose a good writer… and a good friend.

**Hunting Season**

Gazing out over the floating landmass Angel Island, Knuckles stood vigil in his duty to guard the Master Emerald. However, he was no longer alone in guarding it. His good friend and fellow echidna Shade was also helping. She had volunteered to do so and Knuckles thought, why not? It would be good to have some company for a change. However, something didn't feel right. Sonic, Amy Rouge, Shadow and Omega had claimed to have received help from strange beings with unseen weapons and fighting styles. They called them amazing and unique. Knuckles, however, wanted to see them himself before agreeing with whether they could be trusted or not.

Then, there were the gruesome deaths that had been happening in the surrounding area, of humans and Mobians being skinned and hung from trees for all to see or having skulls and spines removed from their bodies completely and rumors of people seeing the air shimmer in front of them and loud roars sounding through the night. When they went to the source of the noise, they found another body. Shade appeared to read his thoughts and came over. She put a hand on his shoulder.

"You okay Knuckles?" Concern was in her voice as she spoke.

"Just all the stuff that's been going on lately", Knuckles replied, worry evident in his voice. "What kind of... thing would do something like that?"

Shade couldn't answer that. She was just as horrified by the method of killing as Knuckles was. She'd seen some pretty bad stuff in her time, but seeing a skinned body just about beat them all. She'd gagged when she saw the first body and now, she was still disturbed when she saw one. As she looked out towards the trees, she thought she saw something move. The air seemed to shimmer and distort. No she must be seeing things.

Knuckles was still deep in thought when something caught his eye. Three red dots were on the stone in front of him, set in a triangle. They moved along the stone and came to rest on Shade's head. It was almost like a...

"...targeting laser!" Realizing this, he leaped at Shade and pinned her to the ground. Just as he did, he heard a whooshing noise and a bright blue ball flew the air, right where Shade's head had been a second before. It hit the stone behind her and blew a large chunk out of it. Knuckles looked in the direction of the shot , but couldn't see anything.

"Uh, Knuckles. Would you... um... move please." Knuckles looked down to see Shade underneath him, blushing like mad. Blushing as well, he got up and helped her to her feet.

"Sorry Shade. It's just..." He was about to finish, but she cut him off.

"It's okay. If you hadn't done that, I'd probably be dead", she assured him, though still red around the cheeks. "Did you see who fired that?", she added, looking at the shot's direction.

"No, I didn't see anything. You?"

"Well..." Shade thought how to put it. "Before it was fired, I saw the air shimmer. It wasn't invisible, more like a chameleon. Some kind of cloaking device." No sooner had she said this, there was another whoosh and another ball flew past them.

"Well, we gotta find this thing and fast!", Knuckles said, his eyes darting all around. They then heard laughter. It sounded like Eggman, but there was something different. It was oddly distorted, like a recording.

"Over here." That same style of voice echoed through the trees.

"It's using recordings", Shade said "It must be trying to confuse us. Taunt us, like it's toying with us."

"Come on, where are you!", Knuckles yelled. "Show yourself, you coward!" The thing responded with a loud roar. He'd touched a nerve.

"Yeah that's right!" Knuckles smiled at Shade as she took over. "You heard him! Only a coward fights when his enemies can't see him. Let's get a look at you!"

"Nobody calls me a coward, lou-dte-kalei!" A deep, glutteral voice spoke this time. There was a thud as something landed in front of them. The air shimmered as it stood there. Then, there was a beep and their adversary was revealed. The form of it was tall and muscular, with greenish-brown skin, like a reptile almost, but without scales. It had long, dread-lock hair and wore a mask that covered it's face, armor in some places and a tribal like garb. The creature raised it's long fingers to its shoulder and removed a tube device and dropped it to the floor. It then reached up to it's mask and pulled out two pipes, that hissed as they were removed. It then removed it's helmet. Shade gasped and Knuckles cringed.

The face resembled a crab's. It had a large forehead, with deep sunken yellow eyes, a row of sharp teeth and four mandibles surrounding the mouth. "I am N'yaka-de, I am Yautja and I am your death!", he stated and roared at them, hunching his back and flaring his mandibles, a sign of aggression.

"Bring it on!" Knuckles and Shade said at the same time. They were about to fight when a voice of a girl yelled "Ki'cite!" and another deep voice said "Stand down, Badblood!" Every one turned to see the new arrivals.

One was like the being they were about to fight, but he seemed older and more experienced. He wore less armor and both this and his mask bore many scars of unknown battles. The second was a young girl, of about 14 or 15. However, some of her attributes weren't exactly normal. She had bright yellow eyes, pale skin and long black claws instead of fingers. She had a thin face and white hair in a ponytail.

The large one stepped forward. "Stand down, Badblood. Lay down your weapons and surrender, or you will die."

N'yaka-de didn't listen and looked at the girl. "How do you know our language ooman?", he asked in a dangerous voice.

"How I know is no concern of yours", she responded coolly. "Do as he says and lay down your weapons."

"I will surrender when the Black Warrior himself dies!", he roared back. (Not being racist, it's their version of the Grim Reaper!) He pulled out a spear and ran at them, mandibles flared, spittle flying from his maw. The girl leaped aside and landed in a battle stance, her claws bared.

"Allow me to introduce you to him then!", she yelled and the two ran at each other, both fierce warriors, both fighting to kill!

* * *

And cliffhanger! Oooh I'm cruel! Hope you liked this chapter, I'll update again in time. Until then... good hunting!

Yautja language:

lou-dte-kalei- child maker, slang or joke for a female.

ki'cite- enough

N'yaka-de - Master

badblood-criminal

ooman- yautja pronouncing human

Black Warrior- their Grim Reaper


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2. The hunt goes on my friends and will not end… until the end. Or until this fic finishes. Hope you all like it and if not, I will make you. BWHAHAHAHA! I dedicate this to my girlfriend,oo ForgottenRoses oo for being such an awesome girl and being so encouraging in my personal issues.

**Hunting Season**

Metal and claw clashed. The girl managed to get her claws caught in between the spear and managed to wrench it out of it's wielder's hands and threw it away. N'yaka-de looked to where it fell, turned back and snarled. The girl just smiled and winked.

"Now, we're even, mandible mouth", she taunted and ran from the pyramid onto the grassy area below. The alien roared and ran after her. Shade made to run after her when the other alien held her back.

"What are doing, we should help her!", she yelled at him.

"She insisted she fight her on her own", he responded calmly. "Anyway, I think I should introduce myself. I am the Wolf, as my name is said in your tongue."

"Well, I'm Shade and this is Knuckles. We guard the Master Emerald together", Shade told him.

"Together? You are mated then?", he asked without a trace of embarrassment. Both Knuckles and Shade blushed scarlet at this and avoided looking him in the eye.

"Wha... no... we uh... we're just friends", Knuckles stammered. The alien chuckled and shook his head.

"Okay, I 'll take you're word for it. The girl's name is Angela by the way", he said as if it was an after thought. A loud thud drew their attention and turned to see two more Yautja materialize behind them. The Wolf spun round and drew his own spear. "You two take the one the one on the right, I'll take this one", he nodded to one on the left. The one in question fired off a shot and then ran off.

"Get back here you unholy pauk!", the Wolf yelled before running after him with his spear in the air. The other hostile alien drew a pair of blades from gauntlets on his wrists and roared in challenge towards Knuckles and Shade.

"I look forward to making you two my next trophies", he said sinisterly as he stood ready to fight.

"Well, you must not know who you're dealing with then", Knuckles responded before raising his fists and charging. He bought down on him, but the alien caught it and threw his own punch. Said action hit Knuckles with such force, he was knocked backwards into the wall. He slumped down, dazed and didn't get up.

"Knuckles!", Shade exclaimed and turned to his attacker, anger twisting her features. "You're gonna pay for that!" Without a moments hesitation she attacked. It was with such ferocity, that the warrior was caught off-guard. The punch caught him in the stomach. While this would have knocked the wind out of any human, the hunter barely flinched and made a counter-attack, swiping at her head with his wrist-knives. She ducked out of the way, the blades skimming her head and activated her own cloak. The alien obviously wasn't expecting this and whirled around looking for his target. Shade, however, had already sneaked around him. Her hands glowing, she rushed at him. He spun around but was too late and howled as his energy was drained by Shade. He collapsed to his knees, panting slightly. Shade looked at him, a superior expression on her features.

"Aww, you look tired", she said in a mockingly sweet voice. Her hands glowed again. "Well, lets put you to sleep." She ran at the alien hunter and punched him in the head. The Predator was forced backwards, luminous green blood covering the stones and hit the ground with a satisfying thud. The hunter made no signs of life or movement. He was quite dead. Shade then went to Knuckles, who was beginning to regain consciousness. He grumbled something incoherently as Shade helped him to his feet.

"Take it easy Knuckles, you look like you had a nasty hit to your head", Shade advised as the echidna staggered a little.

"Your one to talk, you took that thing down all by yourself", he said approvingly, smiling as he leaned against a pillar. Shade blushed at this muttering "It was nothing."

"Nonsense Shade", said the guttural voice of the Wolf. His spear was also stained with luminescent blood and he himself had sustained a few injuries. "To defeat one of my kind in single combat is an admirable feat indeed." He approached her and removed a round, flat disc from his belt. He shook it and blades sprung from within then retracted them again. "We give the victor a weapon as a mark of respect. So, I feel it only right to present you with this shuriken as your prize", he said proudly and handed it to her. Shade looked at the weapon and smiled at the Wolf.

"Thank you", she said and bowed to him and he bowed back. "But, where's that girl, Angela?"

"Right here!", a low voice proclaimed. They turned and saw N'yaka-de holding Angela in an arm lock, his blades pressed against her throat. "You may have defeated my brothers, but you won't kill me! This ooman (he gestured at Angela) is my passport to life. Put down your weapons or her thwei covers the stone at your feet." From the look in his eye and the tone in his voice, he sounded as if he meant it. Slowly, they lowered their weapons and put them on the ground.

"Good", said N'yaka-de, his voice dripping with contempt. "Now, if your good, I may let you keep her head."

"Hey, mandible mouth", Angela teased her captor. "Unfortunately, your passport's just expired!" Then, she stood hard on his toe. He howled and relaxed his grip and Angela broke out, spun round and impaled him with her claws. He had barely screamed before she decapitated him with one swing and his body fell, headless and dripping with blood, to the stone floor.

"Thwei-de", she said, shaking blood off her claws. She then turned to Knuckles and Shade. "Thank you both for aiding us. Now we must leave. I t was an honour fighting with you both." Before either of them could do anything, she ran off, her alien companion following.

"Wait!" Knuckles would have chased after them, were it not for his injuries and Shade holding him back.

"No Knuckles, your in no condition to run. Besides, I have a feeling we'll see them again.", she told him, in a commanding, yet caring tone.

"Yeah, you're probably right", Knuckles agreed. He stared after where they'd gone, the glow of the Master Emerald combined with the alien blood giving him a rather eerie look. As he stood, Shade took his hand. He looked at her and she smiled. He blushed a bit and smiled back.

* * *

"Well, that's another problem solved and done" Angela said cheerily to her companion.

"Hold on, getting a message from the others" The Wolf informed, holding up his wrist device. A series of words scrolled across the screen in his language. "Oh no."

"What", asked the mutant in a worried voice, "What did it say?"

The Wolf looked at her, his expression grim. "It said 'we were too late. Their ships have left the base. They are coming.'"

Angela gasped. "You mean..?"

The Wolf nodded. "A whole army. 25000 of them." He shuddered. He could already see them, flying in the air, their harsh voices toning their battle cry: **"EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"**

DUN DUN DUHHH! Cliffhanger! I will write a sequel to this. All out battle next time, but I'm gonna be working on a another story and revising for my GCSEs. Until next time... GOODBYE! BWHAHAHAHAHA!


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